Journal of Health in the Field

Background and Aims: Soil washing using surfactant is a promising technology for PAHs removal from soil transferring them into liquid phase. The performance of this process is influenced by several factors such as surfactant concentration, washing time, liquid:soil ratio (L/S) and the presence of natural organic matter, which in the present study was totally investigated using the nonionic surfactant Tween 80.
Materials and Methods: Surfactant solution with three various concentrations of 500, 2750, 5000 mg/l, at liquid:soil ratios of 10, 20, 30 v/w (ml/g) containing three concentrations of 0, 10, 20 mg/l humic acid (asNOM) was added to phenanthrene contaminated soil samples. The samples were placed on a shaker for time
interval of 2, 13 and 24 hours, then it was injected to HPLC for phenanthrene concentration analyze. This research was conducted on the basis of central composite design by using response surface method (RSM) in 29 experimental runs.
Results: Maximum removal efficiency (77.35%) was achieved under the experimental conditions of 5000 mg/l surfactant concentration, 30 v/w liquid:soil ratio, absence of humic acid and 24 h washing time. Surfactant concentration with impact value of 82.03% was the most effective parameter in phenanthrene removal. L/S was also the other significant factor (P<0.0001), but humic acid and washing time were, statistically,
insignificant. The interaction between surfactant concentration and L/S was significant too.
Conclusion: Considering the conditions of Iran’s soils containing 3-6 percent organic matter and based on the suggestions of RSM with 95.10% desirability, the optimum conditions for washing high- phenanthrene soil (about 500 mg/kg) with minimum washing time of 2 hours were as 5000 mg/l surfactant concentration, 30 v/w (ml/g) liquid:soil ratio, and 2.1 mg/l humic acid concentration (6.30%).
Key words: phenanthrene, soil washing, surfactant Tween 80, optimization

Background and Aims: Pharmaceuticals are considered as emerging environmental pollutants due to their continuous input and persistence in the aquatic ecosystem even at low concentrations. This work focuses on the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) from Azithromycin contaminated synthetic aqueous solution through proxy electrocoagulation process.
Materials and Methods: A batch method was used for removal of Azithromycin from water. The parameters affecting on the proxy electrocoagulation of antibiotics and subsequently COD removal efficiency such as reaction time, concentration of hydrogen peroxide, current density and pH of the solution was investigated.
Results: The proxy electrocoagulation process achieved a very high COD removal efficiency (95.6%) with reaction time of 60 min, current density of 20 mA/cm-2 and at pH 3 in the presence of 1.5 mg/L of hydrogen peroxide, producing cleaned water.
Conclusion: Although economically should be investigated compared to other methods, the studied process was useful in terms of Azithromycin removal from aqueous solutions.
Key words: Wastewater, electrocoagulation, Azithromycin, COD

Background and Aims: Dyes are widely used in different industries and consequently are disposed through different industrial effluents into the environment. Chronic and/or acute effects of the chemicals on microorganisms have been documented. Dyes may absorb and reflect the entering sun lights into the water and thereby decrease the algal photosynthesis. The later in turn can affect the food chain seriously. The aim of this study was, therefore, to use MgO nanoparticles as catalyst in heterogenic catalytic ozonation process (COP) for reactive red 120 dye removal (decolorization) from synthetic wastewater.
Materials and Methods: MgO nanoparticles were produced by sol-gel method. The influences of several operational parameters including solution pH, reaction time, MgO dosage and initial dye concentration on removal (decolorization) efficiency were evaluated.
Results: The optimum pH and MgO dosage for COP were determined as 10 and 3 g/L, respectively. Decolorization of 500 mg/L of dye was almost complete after 12 min under achieved optimum conditions. MgO nanocrystals markedly affected the COP and enhanced the dye removal efficiency by approximately 49% compared with the sole ozonation process.
Conclusion: Higher O3 decomposition in presence a small amounts of catalyst and alkaline pH increases the radical production which in turn improves the decolorization efficiency. Increasing the initial concentration of dye deteriorated the removal efficiency; however, this can be compensated by increasing the ozonation rate.
Key words: Catalytic Ozonation, MgO Nanoparticles, Reactive Red 120 dye (RR120).

Background and Aims: Health is an important dimension in analyzing multidimensional child poverty. High life expenditure imposed on families has lead to the household’s health poverty. Considering the importance of childhood and measuring health poverty indices to inform planners and towards distributive effects of policy strategies, as well as, family welfare, this paper tends to measure and analyse the trends of health poverty of Iranian “households with child” from 1984-2012.
Materials and Methods: In this trend study, statistical data on household budgets were considered to measure health poverty in households with child (using FGt index). The results were analyzed using STATA and Excel Software.
Results: The results showed that the poverty rate was the highest in terms of all age group’s health in 1999. While, the health poverty rate among families with children in the age group of 11-15-year-old showed an upward trend in recent periods (the end of the fourth development goal and beginning of fifth Program), it was associated with fluctuations in other age groups.
Conclusion: Overall, health poverty rate was high in all age groups although it showed high fluctuations. The high fluctuations of the health poverty index during the development plans indicate that stable and consistent policy has not been developed to reduce households facing catastrophic health expenditure. At the end of this research, some recommendations have been offered to reduce the amount of household’s health poverty.
Key words: health poverty, household financial contribution, cohort approach, child

Background and Aims: Cement industries are known as one of the important sources of air pollution especially hazardous gases. Although several samples have been taken from stacks by environmental experts, accurate assessment of pollutant emissions, which can be used as basic modeling of air pollution and managing, is not available. The purpose of this study is to measure and investigate gases volumetric concentrations from stack of Doroud Cement Plant and finally compare with standards.
Materials and Methods: The volumetric concentrations of gases (ppm) measured by Testo XL350 during a period of six months. After standardization of pressure and temperature on the ideal gas law, the detected values were converted to mass concentrations and then gases mass emission (g/s) was computed considering the stack flow.
Results: Results showed that detected pollutants’ volumetric concentrations were higher than their standard levels for stack cement industrials (Electro Filter and Pre-heater). It has also been found that due to the use of oil fuel as a kiln fuel, the emissions of CO and SO2 gases increased in winter.
Conclusion: This method can be applied as a model for gas emission. Long distance detection of gas pollutants should be considered for environmental monitoring of pollutants around cement industries.
Key words: Mass emission, Pollutant gases, Doroud Cement Plant

Background and Aims: Fluoride is a toxic chemical for human. The present study was aimed to investigate fluoride removal from urban drinking water by the combination of batch electrochemical reactor, using copper-copper electrodes, and poly aluminum chloride (PAC) as chemical coagulant.
Materials and Methods: Fluoride contaminated drinking water samples were prepared and thence the effect of different variables including pH (4.2-9), initial fluoride concentration (3-9 mg/L), contact time (10-40 min), PAC concentration (10-50 mg/L), distance between electrodes (1.5 cm), and current density (1.5-4.5 mW/cm2) on fluoride removal efficiency was studied.
Results: The experimental results have shown that the maximum removal efficiency of 87.0% was obtained in the electrochemical reactor for 9 mg F-/L at 1.5 cm distance between electrodes, current density of 4.5 mA/cm2, electrolysis time of 40 min and pH 7.5. Similarly, the maximum fluoride removal (100%) was obtained when the operating conditions were set as electrode distance 1.5 cm, current density 3 mA/cm2, electrolysis time 40 min and pH 7.5. Incorporating PAC in electrochemical reactor resulted in a very high fluoride removal (over 99%) from high-fluoride water (9 mg/L) when distance between electrodes, current density, contact time, and pH were 1.5 cm, 4.5 mA/cm2, 10 min and 7.5, respectively. At a contact time of 10 min, pH 7.5 and 10 mg PAC/L, the enhanced coagulation achieved a complete fluoride removal (100%) when the distance between electrodes and current density were respectively 1.5 cm and 4.5 mA/cm2.
Conclusion: It has been found that fluoride removal from high-fluoride contaminated water in an electrochemical batch reactor is practicable. The enhanced coagulation process with copper-copper electrodes and PAC was more effective for fluoride removal as compared with the use of batch electrochemical reactor solely.
Key words: Copper electrode, drinking water, electrochemical, Fluoride, poly aluminum chloride.